Transparent by name, transparent in approach

Outsourced call centers play an important role in business. They provide companies with flexible and scalable access to dedicated customer service staff while reducing operating costs and freeing up resources to focus on other priorities.

Transparent BPO is one of the fastest-growing business process outsourcing providers in the United States. The company’s success is due in part to its philosophy of “pushing boundaries to ensure that every person’s experience is better than before.” Through talent, process, and technology, Transparent BPO integrates with its clients’ brands and cultures to deliver superior customer experiences across communications channels ranging from voice and email to chat and social.

To deliver the high-quality service its customers expect, Transparent BPO maintains a rigorous recruitment process in which just 18% of candidates are offered roles. Successful applicants tend to have strong communications skills, empathy toward others, and a desire to learn. They’re nurtured through a world-class onboarding and training experience that helps ensure they can handle almost any customer service scenario.

“People are at the heart of what we do,” explains Hugh Rumbaugh, Director of Digital Learning at Transparent BPO. “It takes a special type of person to become an agent. You need to have certain innate skills, and we can teach the rest.”

Most of Transparent BPO’s call center staff are based in the company’s nearshore and offshore hubs of Belize, Jamaica, and the Philippines. These countries are ideally positioned to provide round-the-clock coverage for U.S. customers and have highly educated, skilled workforces.

Developing a pipeline of future leaders

When Rumbaugh joined Transparent BPO, he was given direction by CEO Scott Newman to take learning and development to the next level. Newman’s vision was to create nothing less than a full-scale university designed to teach industry-leading service skills. The curricula and mechanics of the program would be determined by Rumbaugh and his team.

Rumbaugh was pleased to see that Adobe Learning Manager was already implemented as the company’s learning management system (LMS).

“I was familiar with Adobe and knew that Adobe Learning Manager would be ideal for what I had in mind,” explains Rumbaugh. “Crucially, it would help us overcome the fact that our training is optional. I knew that we could design curricula that would appeal to our employees, prompt them to sign up, and keep them engaged over the long-term.”

Building a digital learning platform

Rumbaugh and his team got to work building New Hire Orientation and Security & Compliance Training into the system. From there they focused on Level 1: Associate in Transparent BPO University, which incorporates three steps. They include Required Courses, which creates the foundation for agents and team leaders for basic service principles and helps them understand the nuances of serving American customers in six core competencies ranging from how to get through stressful situations with unhappy customers to how to express gratitude and appreciation. There are also electives that allow them to choose the direction they want to take their careers and then lastly, a keyboard proficiency test.

“We live in a TikTok world in which content has to be simple, easy-to-use, and dynamic to keep our young talent engaged until they’ve completed all three steps of Level 1 Associate in the University,” says Rumbaugh. “Adobe Learning Manager handles this skillfully.”

After participants complete Level 1, they move on to Level 2: Specialist, in which they are taught how to serve customers in a contact center environment via voice, email, and chat.

Alongside the core training program, participants can access a comprehensive, on-demand course library that addresses any skill gaps and gives them the freedom to pursue their own interests and just in time learning content — courses ranging from how to master the art of Excel to how to pronounce the names of all 50 U.S. states run from three minutes to three hours.

Throughout the courses, Adobe’s embedded Fluidic Player was deployed to create a seamless, blended learning experience. This has ensured that all content and players behave in the learner experience as designed from the content developers and is a key differentiator in the user experience as compared to other LMS systems. Meanwhile, gamification — including, 360 virtual reality interactions, and video elements — was built into much of the curricula. For example, Level 1 features over 700 gamification aspects to help employees master typing and interacting at the same time, a vital skill for service agents. Customer Service Week courses, feature 14 gamified events exposing learners to Choose Your Own Destiny training, harnesses video to engage learners, while competitions such as crossword puzzles can be performed as digital group exercises.

The dynamic learning environment allows Rumbaugh’s team to capture employee feedback via assessments and surveys and use the data to refine and improve course offerings.

Overall, Rumbaugh’s team finds the Learning Management Solution (LMS) intuitive and easy to use; and they leverage built-in reporting to run all aspects of the university, from the onboarding of new hires to keeping leadership apprised of developments as well as SOC2 Security & Compliance Training Certification.

“Compared to other learning management systems I’ve used, Adobe Learning Manager allows us to be more innovative and productive,” says Rumbaugh. “Providing easy integration and SCORM updates, the Adobe solution is head and shoulders above the rest.”

Satisfied employees equal satisfied customers

Today, Transparent BPO University has achieved 61% employee engagement, with numbers climbing as the program evolves. This is three-times the company’s previous uptake and a significant leap over the learning industry average of 30%. Some training modules have achieved even higher engagement. Altogether, Transparent BPO University now incorporates 1,500 timely SCORM events into 335 courses and e-learning modules or Learning Paths.

“Due to our increased focus on learning and development, we now have a career path for agents that is unmatched in the industry,” Rumbaugh says proudly.

Looking ahead, Rumbaugh plans to use the LMS to increase automation in courses and initiatives; deepen and expand curricula across the levels; and speed up the tempo of tutorials to get participants upskilled faster, in line with business growth. He has also been asked by the CEO to create two additional learning levels that will take participants to mastery level, something that no other outsourcing company provides.

Reflecting on the success of Transparent BPO University, Rumbaugh says: “With Adobe Learning Manager, we created a high-performance culture fueled by the continuous development of front-line, mid-level, and future leaders. As a company, our employee development has never been in a stronger position and we’re confident we can go in whatever direction the market takes us.”

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